Warrant sought for Jomsap’s arrest

national November 24, 2017 11:53

By The Nation

Police have asked the Nakhon Phanom Provincial Court to issue an arrest warrant for former teacher Jomsap Saenmuangkhot on suspicion she helped recruit scapegoats in a bid to exonerate herself in a fatal 2005 hit-and-run accident.

Provincial police chief Pol Maj-General Suwicharn Yankittikul said on Friday Jomsap would be charged with perjury under Section 180 of the Penal Code, which covers false evidence and prescribes punishment of up to seven years in jail and a Bt14,000 fine.

Sap Wapi surrendered to police this week, recanting his earlier confession that he and not Jomsap had been the driver of the truck that struck and killed cyclist Lua Phorbumrung in Nakhon Phanom on March 11, 2005.

Sap told police that Jomsap’s friend Suriya Nuancharoen had promised to pay him Bt400,000 to take the blame in the case so that Jomsap could be exonerated, but he never received the money.

Police have vowed to prosecute Sap, Suriya and five other people on charges including perjury, racketeering and libel.

Jomsap was sentenced to three years and two months in prison over the cyclist’s death but was granted a royal pardon in April 2015 after serving 18 months.

She has spent the past two years trying to prove she was not involved in the accident and to be reinstated in her teaching post.

The Supreme Court last week rejected her petition for a retrial, citing suspicions of “hired scapegoats”.